Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to group the breeding lines as their similarities and assess the magnitude of genetic distances among them; then identify the contribution of individual traits to total variations.

Materials and Methods: A total of 49 inbreed lines were evaluated for 17 traits using simple lattice design at Bishoftu and Akaki in 2022 main cropping season. Cluster analysis based on Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Means (UPGMA) from Euclidean distances matrix grouped in to five clusters of the 49 tef genotypes.

Results: The members of clusters II and III had mean value greater than overall mean for grain yield. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster III and IV, while the lowest inter-cluster distances was observed between cluster I and II. Principal components analysis revealed that four principal components with Eigen-values greater than unity accounted for 75% of the variation in tef genotypes.

Conclusion: It was concluded that the genotypes which had larger genetic distance indicate wide genetic divergence, therefore, if such lines are crossed, high variability and better transgressive sergeants may be developed.

Statistics